Figure Spotlight – Mighty Muggs Darth Vader

Back in 2007, Hasbro introduced the world to Mighty Muggs. Inspired by the “vinyl toy” movement, these figures shared the same body and varied the paint to make characters from Star Wars, Marvel, GI Joe, Indiana Jones and beyond. Following a few years of retail success, Mighty Muggs disappeared from store shelves.

At this past NYCC, Hasbro announced the return of Mighty Muggs! While retaining the same general aesthic as the originals, these Muggs were a little smaller and featured a cool new multi-expression head rotating feature. Hasbro was kind enough to send over the new Darth Vader Mighty Mugg (part of the first Star Wars wave available now), so let’s take a look.

Starting off with the Mighty Mugg in package, I have to say that I think the new ‘dome’ packaging is fantastic. It showcases the figures from several angles and with the ‘try me’ hole in the top of the dome, you can give the face rotating action feature a go without removing the figure from the package. This new packaging really addresses the needs of collectors who won’t open them, as you can really experience the whole figure without having to pop the dome off. It also looks great at retail and showcases the new action feature. A win on all counts on the packaging side.

That said, I’m not an ‘in box’ type collector – so my intention was the free Vader from his plastic prison. To open up these new Mighty Muggs you remove the tape securing the dome and unscrew the knobs holding the feet to the base and presto – one loose Darth Vader Mighty Mugg.

In the new format the Darth Vader Mighty Mugg stands right around 4″ tall – quite a bit smaller than the original Mighty Muggs, but also quite a bit bigger than Micro Muggs. The limbs and body are pretty similar in shape to the original format and you can still move the arms. The head is where the new Mighty Muggs most differ from the original. With a push on Darth’s helmet his expression rotates between a nuetral expression, an angry/frowning expression and what I think is a smiling one – these are some subtle differences – the unmasked characters show a much wider range of expression. The mechanism itself works great, the transition between expression is smooth and the mechanism feels solid. This was a great way to bring something new to the table with Mighty Muggs.

11 years after their first intoduction, Hasbro is bringing Mighty Muggs with a brand new twist. Priced at $10 each these new Muggs are close the original, but the new action feature with the quick change expression brings something new to the format. The first Star Wars (Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Rey, Kylo Ren and Pricess Leia) and Marvel (Black Widow, Captain America, Groot, Hulk and Spidey) waves are on shelves now and Hasbro has just announced the second waves which should be hitting stores in a few weeks. If you spot these in store, be sure to try them out and maybe add one to your collection